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Why airports in Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhye were shut down for few days.

The decision to temporally shut down airports in several cities in Ukraine was made by State Aviation Administration of Ukraine www.avia.gov.ua based on information that pro-Russian terrorists who control some areas in Lugansk and Donetsk regions could have “surface-to-air” missiles with attack range of 250 km (155 miles) and that could be dangerous for civil aircraft.

This information was reported yesterday by Security Service of Ukraine adviser Olena Hitlyanska during the briefing.

The decision to shut down three airports was made by State Aviation Administration of Ukraine based on information provided by one of the departments of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine regarding possible danger for civil aircraft in ATO (Anti-Terrorists Operation) zone. There was information that on the territory of Lugansk and Donetsk Regions there were “surface-to-air” missiles (“Buk”, “Pantsir” or similar) with maximum attack range of 250 km. So the decision was made to prevent situations similar to MH17.

Later same day State Aviation Administration of Ukraine published information on their website that the airspace in the are of Dnepropetrovsk and Kharkov airports is open again from 21:00 on December 15 2014. And all flights are resumed.

In order to provide security of the flights the airspace in the area of Zaporozhye airport will be closed till 06:00 December 20 2014.

After we analyze the information above, we come to conclusion that the only possible location where pro-Russian terrorist may have “Buk” missiles is the read area controlled by them near Mariupol. That’s the only place in 250 km range that covers Zaporozhye and doesn’t cover Dnepropetrovsk and Kharkov airports.

Possible “Buk” location near Mariupol

And if you check FlightRadar24 you can see that the flights to other airports has been really resumed, and flight Z61/UDN1 by Dniproavia from Kiev to Dnepropetrovsk is landing now.